The last survivors of a forgotten war: ‘We were locked in for hours'
After crossing the causeway they were deposited at the docks where the evacuees were put on board a ship to Jakarta, Indonesia. They stayed there, sharing lodgings with a displaced Scottish mother and her newborn, before being moved to Sydney and then Melbourne for the rest of the war.
I have been thinking of Jean (one of my mother's great friends in Aberdeen, whose father, a bank manager, was in the notorious Changi Japanese internment camp in Singapore) because of The Second Map — The History Podcast, a riveting, revelatory three-part documentary series on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds commissioned to mark the 80th anniversary of VJ Day (Victory over Japan Day) on August 15.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
‘The Japanese dropped a bomb right behind me – this is how I survived'
A 105-year-old navy veteran has told the Duchess of Edinburgh how he survived the Japanese bombing of HMS Repulse after a bomb dropped on the deck directly behind him. Jim Wren sat down for a cup of tea and cake with the Duchess at his care home in Salisbury, where he recalled extraordinary stories of survival ahead of the 80th anniversary of VJ Day on Friday. Both HMS Prince of Wales, then Britain's newest and most powerful battleship, and her consort, the battlecruiser Repulse, were sunk off the east coast of Malaysia by Japanese naval planes on December 10 1941, three days after the attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. It was the Royal Navy's greatest single defeat of the Second World War. Mr Wren, who was later captured and held as a prisoner of war for more than three years, has joined calls for the anchor of the Prince of Wales to be returned to the UK and installed at the memorial to those who died at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, unveiled in 2011. Mr Wren told the Duchess of the moment they came under attack: 'It was around 11 o'clock in the morning. I was having a cup of tea on the mess deck and the alarm was raised. 'I dropped my cup and as I left the mess deck, the first bomb dropped right behind me. 'Fortunately, it didn't explode – I was able to go down two or three decks before it exploded. That saved my life.' He added: 'From then onwards it was a case of actions, actions, and it was torpedo after torpedo and they eventually got nine hits.' Mr Wren sat with the other young reserve gun crew for more than an hour listening to the roar of battle before emerging into chaos. He has previously told The Telegraph how he then stripped off his heavier clothing, climbed over the side, crawled over the bilges and into the water. 'There was no time to freeze with fear,' he said. 'It was do or die.' The two ships shot down just three of 85 Japanese aircraft before succumbing. Of the 1,612 aboard the Prince of Wales, 327 died, while on Repulse, 513 from a complement of 1,309 perished. Asked by the Duchess, who is patron of the Java Far East Prisoner of War Club 1942, if his family knew he had survived, Mr Wren said: 'It was right until the end of the war until they knew I was alive. So they suffered all this time.' The veteran described how he was later captured by Japanese soldiers alongside a group of civilians as they attempted to flee Singapore by boat. 'It must have been awful, because you were surrounded by women and children,' the Duchess said. Mr Wren nodded. 'We didn't know [where] our next meal was coming from, or [where] our next drink was coming from...' he explained. 'They had no idea how to deal with prisoners of war, the Japanese – no idea.' Mr Wren was kept as a prisoner in Sumatra before being released in August 1945, after Japan surrendered. There was laughter when the Duchess asked him what had attracted him to the Navy. 'Nothing attracted me to the Navy – I didn't want to be in the Navy,' he admitted. Mr Wren applied to join the RAF and the Army when he was 19, but was turned down. He then joined the Navy after his uncle, a retired Royal Marine, was recalled up on reserve. The wrecks of both the Prince of Wales and Repulse have been designated as official war graves but that has not stopped them from being preyed upon by salvage merchants. Campaigners and relations of those who died aboard HMS Repulse have long called for parts of the warship to be recovered to serve as a memorial before scrap metal scavengers further desecrate the last resting place of her crew. The bronze propellers disappeared between September 2012 and May 2013, followed by components made of other ferrous metals and blocks of steel and aluminium. Campaign for return of artefects to UK In April 2023, the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust (Mast) tracked a Chinese purpose-built salvage barge that had looted the Prince of Wales wreckage to a breakers' yard on the south coast of Malaysia. There, two of the ship's anchors, alongside other artefacts, are still being held. One of the anchors remains in good condition and the organisation is campaigning for it to be returned to the UK where it can be conserved and then installed at the national memorial. But Jessica Berry, founder and chief executive of Mast, said the Malaysians were keen to keep it for themselves, having built a new structure 'where they think it will look very nice.' She added: 'Our aim is the anchor to be conserved and installed at the National Memorial Arboretum as a fitting memorial to those who died, as per Jim Wren's wishes.' Mr Wren said: 'We would like the anchor to go to the memorial at the National Arboretum.' The war veteran became emotional as he spoke about the 80th anniversary of VJ Day commemorations. 'When we got back, the government didn't want to know and told us not to talk about it,' he said. On Friday, the King will deliver an audio address to the nation to mark the historic anniversary VJ Day before joining the Queen at a Service of Remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum.
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
VE Day overshadows VJ Day, veterans' descendants say
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice VE Day often overshadows VJ Day, descendants of Second World War veterans have said during a screening of their wartime letters. Passers-by paused to watch recordings of loved ones' reading excerpts from the notes at the free installation to commemorate VJ Day. One message, heard at the launch in central London on Tuesday, said: 'I'll think of you wherever you are, if it be near or far. I'll think of you. We'll meet again someday, when dreams come true.' Another line, from a doctor in a Japanese prisoner of war camp, read: 'Our dreams have finally come true. The nightmare is over.' VJ Day on August 15 marks the anniversary of Japan's surrender to the Allies following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, effectively ending the Second World War. Veronica Silander's father was an RAF airman and prisoner of war in Batavia, now Jakarta in Indonesia, and wrote his letter around two months after he was captured. It was the first message Ms Silander's mother had received from Maurice Read since he was taken and it included the line: 'So once again, do not worry please. I am OK and intend to remain so.' As the letters played on the large screens behind, Ms Silander told the PA news agency: 'The youngsters need to know about (VJ Day), I think it's often in the shadow of VE Day. 'I think probably 80 years, you know, even people like myself are not going to be around that had direct contact with somebody, so I think we should mark it.' She added: 'I think my mother must have been very distressed to know that he was still a prisoner when all the celebration was going on.' Her father rarely spoke about the war but would say 'when you woke up in the morning, you didn't know who was going to be dead beside you'. Ms Silander knows little more than that he trained in Auckland, New Zealand, and was captured two weeks after they were taken to Singapore by sea. Families received leaflets telling them 'do not ask the veterans about the war', she said. 'I think they just wanted them to come home and forget about it,' she added. John Sanderson served with the Royal Navy in the Far East between 1944 and 1946, and his letter to his fiance included the line 'we'll meet again someday, when dreams come true'. His son, Brian Sanderson, told PA: 'My father always said VJ Day was forgotten.' He would tell his wife that while people were dancing on VE Day 'I had kamikaze pilots coming down on me still'. VJ Day was hardly marked until recently, Mr Sanderson said, adding that his parents did not often speak about the war. 'That's the sad thing, is that we never asked them, they never spoke about it, and the stories have gone – I have no-one left from the Second World War,' he said. The installation runs until Saturday at Outernet, near Tottenham Court Road station, and was organised in partnership with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Daily Record
5 hours ago
- Daily Record
Kirk of Calder congregation marks VJ Day with moving commemoration in West Lothian
August 15, 1945 was the date Japan's forces announced their surrender to the Allies A congregation from a church in West Lothian paid tribute to the fallen as they commemorated the 80th anniversary of the end of the war with Japan. VJ Day marks the date that Japanese forces announced their surrender to the Allies – August 15, 1945 – and finally brought World War II to an end. The Japanese government would officially sign a written declaration of surrender weeks later on September 2. The congregation of Kirk of Calder gathered to honour and pay tribute to the WWII generation from across the UK and the Commonwealth. After a moving service focusing on the war in the Far East, Reverend William Watt led the commemoration at the Mid Calder War Memorial Arch and a poppy wreath was placed on the gates of the arch. Japan paid a terrible price in August 1945 with the loss of around 230,000 civilian lives, residents of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, after the two cities were hit with atomic bombs in the days prior to surrender. It's estimated up to 166,000 died in the attack on Hiroshima on August 6, around 10,000 of them soldiers, and another 80,000 died three days later when Nagasaki was hit, just 150 were soldiers.
